Sosial psychological support services in home and school cooperation: towards optimal human development through enhancing professionalism in education

Abstract

Emphasis on quality home and school cooperation as instrumental to optimal human development of children and adolescents, has given awareness of social psychological support services within the school in enhancing professionalism in the education of the young. In view of the many difficulties that arise in the daily routine of educating the young at home and in school as well as many yet varied problems faced by the young puts a limit as to what teachers and parents can achieve alone. Therefore, functional cooperation between home and school can be enhanced through the specialist services of social psychological personnel inter alia, the school psychologists and counsellors for improving the all-round education and upbringing of children and adolescents. Developing Home And School Cooperation Towards Optimal Human Development Satisfactory human development is contingent upon the success with which the basic emotional needs of each individual are fulfilled within the framework of the constraints of the society in which one grows up. In this context, optimal human development is synonymous with achieving total well-being among children and adolescents including successful adaptation to the everchanging environment through learning at home and in school in anticiption of assuming effective roles upon expansion of one's horizons from the family to school and from school to the wor1d of work (Boer & Koekkoek, 1994). Viewed this way, cogent cooperation between home and school is more than the occasional school reports of students' academic progress and the circulation of the annual school magazine. Functional cooperation involves participatory and committed efforts in setting goals, implementation, evaluating and constant reviewing of school activities for upgrading total development of children and adolescents (Burke, 1991). As cooperation precedes action, much of the success of school activities including helping students overcome ear1ier faculty development and achieving total development and achieving total development through education, depends on the effectiveness of its cooperation system , including that of the home and school. To be effective, home and school cooperation calls for a certain degree of vitality which promotes two-way interaction among educators inter alia, teachers and parents who are involved with guiding the young. Invariably, the tasks of the school are more than that of educating students towards cognitive competence alone. It therefore, follows that no matter how much the school does to develop academic achievement of the young, it cannot avoid its tasks of shaping desirable social and psychological behaviour of children and adolescents. Apparently, even in the most modern societies, no single family however small in size can anticipate to serve all that a young person needs for one's personal development.